CASEY EYES THE FOUR

[Demonland 71,639]

CASEY EYES THE FOUR by KC from Casey

The Casey Scorpions moved a step closer to making the VFL top four with an emphatic 44-point win over the Werribee Tigers at Casey Fields on Saturday.

The home side relished the sunny skies and the near perfect conditions for football as they led from go to whoa to leapfrog both the Tigers and the Northern Bullants to retake fourth place with just one round left before the finals.

The win was the perfect response to a week of soul searching in the wake of the team's second defeat for the season at the hands of the lowly Coburg Tigers in a performance that threatened to derail Casey's 2011 finals campaign.

The Scorpions must now repeat the dose at home against the fifth placed Northern Bullants to book an appointment in the first qualifying final with undefeated ladder leader Port Melbourne.

The Tigers set out to emulate their success of earlier in the year when they won a spiteful encounter at Chirnside Park but after booting the game's first goal, they succumbed to the combined special talents of West Australian indigenous duo Neville Jetta and Kelvin Lawrence who displayed some electric form in the first quarter after Evan Pannoza kicked the team's opening goal.

The much improved Lawrence booted two goals for the term and together with Jetta, started many forward thrusts to help the home side open up a 20 point lead by quarter time.

Matthew Bate continued his rich vein of form for the Scorpions with a great goal just before the break and with both he and Fevola (who passed 50 goals for the season during the second term) dominating up forward, Casey stretched its lead to 33 points at half time.

The intensity dropped a little in the second half but Casey maintained control throughout and was rarely troubled by the Tigers.

The dual ruck combination of Robbie Campbell and Max Gawn had an absorbing duel with Werribee's McIntosh but it was the likes of Jetta (29 touches) and Tom McNamara (27 disposals) who were dominant in the middle. Dave Collins and Wade Lees proved to be excellent back ups and co-skipper James Wall was back to his best with 23 possessions.

Meanwhile, back in defence, Matthew Warnock was steady as a rock and Tim Mohr, bound for the AFL draft combine at season's end, again did his future prospects no harm, this time under the watchful eyes of a bevy of Collingwood scouts.

Jetta was easily best on ground and was unrelenting with his attack on the football right to the end, combining brilliantly with Bate and Fevola in many attacking moves. The latter copped plenty from some of the Tiger fans near the boundary but answered them definitively by kicking six goals from 11 kicks and eight marks to set up his team' win and a meeting with some of his old Carlton team mates when the Scorpions battle the Bullants at Casey Fields next Saturday for the coveted fourth place on the final ladder.

HOW THE DEMONS FARED Melon22's review of the Melbourne listed players' performances:-

Matthew Bate – too strong and quick for his opponent all day and dominated across half forward for Casey. Has been very consistent for Casey and he has been playing with a great attitude all year.

Rohan Bail – a good comeback from injury. Was a good contributor for most of the day but slowed down a little in the last quarter. He added some class and speed to the Casey midfield which was sorely missed from the team last week.

Robert Campbell – had a lot more game time than he has in previous weeks as he looks to build his fitness levels coming in to the finals. He got the best of Hamish McIntosh when matched up in the ruck and gave Casey first use of the ball for most of the day. With a return of Robbie’s fitness he is starting to get more involved with the play around the ground and showing he still has a future at AFL level.

Troy Davis – played across half back and was very good all day; he is a super competitor and shows great desperation playing in the backline. Could be in line for an AFL debut as he has been very consistent after missing most of the early part of the year with a thyroid problem.

Max Gawn – with Campbell playing more time in the ruck, it meant Max was pushed forward a little more than he has in the past games. Managed to kick one, could have a snagged a couple more and was a matchup nightmare for Werribee’s defence.

Neville Jetta – hardly put a foot wrong all day in a best on ground performance which adds to a good run of form since coming back from injury a few weeks ago. Neville is winning a lot of his own ball in the midfield and has been damaging for Casey with his foot skills going forward. He is surely front and centre for a recall this week to the AFL.

Jack Fitzpatrick – while he didn’t have a lot of impact up forward when he did get his opportunities he was good. He is absurdly fast for a big man and watching him run around midfielders would bring a smile to any Melbourne supporter's face. While he still needs to work on his kicking, an AFL debut in the last two weeks would not be out of the question.

Kelvin Lawrence – great all day. Played more in the midfield where he didn’t look out of place, managed to kick two very nice goals and could be in line for a breakout finals series with Casey. The last few weeks for Kelvin has been brilliant as he is starting to show real signs that he has a future in the AFL. He has a great attack on the ball and his hunger for the tackle is very impressive.

Addam Maric – played up forward and was mostly quiet, when he did have the ball he was effective.

Tom McDonald – player on Hamish McIntosh for most of the game and did a good job even though he was outsized. He used his body well and didn’t look out of place on his more celebrated opponent. Probably the most deserving player this year yet to make his AFL debut, has been the most impressive of the youngsters to come in this year and AFL game would be nice reward for a great year from Tom.

Tom McNamara – has found some form playing in the midfield in the last few weeks; he always competes but he just probably needs to bit tidier in his disposal if he wants to stay in the midfield long term.

Daniel Nicholson – displayed his usual dash off half back and was very good in his defensive work. He just needs to tidy up his kicking a little bit, made a couple of bad turnovers which hurt Casey.

Matthew Warnock – was back to his normal outstanding play after a bad week last week, he continues to be the rock in Casey’s defence.

Casey Scorpions 5.0.30 10.4.64 13.9.87 17.11.113

Werribee Tigers 1.4.10 4.7.31 7.8.50 10.9.69

Casey Scorpions Fevola 6 Bate Jetta Lawrence 2 Fitzpatrick Gawn McGough Nicholls Panozza

Werribee Tigers McIntosh 3 McKinley 2 Daw Harding Mangan Rockefeller Warren

Best

Casey Scorpions Jetta Warnock Lees Campbell Bate McNamara

Werribee Tigers McIntosh Ross Mather O'Dwyer Tighe Hartigan

Casey's rising reserves team made it nine wins in a row when they were untroubled in notching a solid 43-point win over Werribee.

It was a great team effort with Jess Bolton, who continues to improve with every game, David Bell and Cameron Johnston featuring among the best players and Will Petropoulos booting three goals.

The return of Austin Wonaeamirri struck a snag when he hurt his ankle in the first half of the game and the nuggety forward will undergo scans to determine the extent of the injury.

Casey Scorpions 3.2.20 7.3.45 9.7.61 13.13.91

Werribee Tigers 3.1.19 3.3.21 5.6.36 7.6.48

Goals

Casey Scorpions Petropoulos 3 Bell Purves Waite 2 Purves 2 Baumgartner Matthews Riseley Weekes

Werribee Tigers Bryce Larsen 2 Risol Simpson Still

Best

Casey Scorpions Bolton Bell Johnston Matthews Pollard Petropoulos

Werribee Tigers Moloney Sullivan Caldow Still Robbins James

[Whispering_Jack 29,825]

Nice work KC.

I was also at the game and I believe that Melon22 will be doing his usual excellent job on "How the Demons fared?" but I'd like to give a few players a mention:

• Neville Jetta - a terrific game and I'm still not sure why he's not in Melbourne's team today. Perhaps Jamie Bennell has been given a particular task but Nev must be a certainty for next week.

• Kelvin Lawrence really started like a house on fire and I would say that with a good pre season behind him, he could be anything next year. He faded a little later in the game but he still did some amazing things. His tackling and defensive pressure reminded me a little of how Aaron Davey used to go about things about five or six years ago.

• I'll pair Max Gawn and Jack Fitzpatrick - these two are both so athletic and agile for such tall players, all I can say is watch out for them in 2013, 14 and beyond.

• Rohan Bail - a good second off game after a long lay off.

• Dan Nicholson - good upside with lots of pace.

[MadAsHell 4,212]

Thanks for the report KC. By the way what do you think would be best for Casey for first week of the finals?

Finish 4th and take on an undefeated Port Melbourne (most likely at TEAC Oval) where more then likely we'll struggle to get up, especially seeing as Melbourne's match that week is interstate meaning Melbourne may take over more then 1 of the emergencies. But having the double chance can always rebound the following week.

Or finish 5th and take on a less then impressive Box Hill or Sandringham where Casey should win(but are facing elimination straight away) and build some confidence going into the semi finals?

Below is my take on how the Melbourne players fared. I also posted it on the Casey-v-Werribbe match day thread.

Reserves:

Cook: Didn't play which was a shame as he was the one I was looking forward to watching the most.

Johnson: Played a pretty solid game. Nothing outstanding but covred a lot of ground and was certainly amongst the best. Will be vying for Casey seniors selection come finals time.

Wonaemirri: Was lively early and gave off the handballs that directly resulted in our first & third goals. Did his ankle early in the 2nd term when running down a Werribee player. Was down for some time, tried to get up but then went straight back down again. Didn't look good and I wouldn't be suprised if that's his season but fingers crossed!

Seniors:

Bail: For is first game back was really good and I fogot how much we're missing him. Seemed to be mainly playing across half back and was behing a lot of Casey's counter attacks when running the ball out of defence. Would think he'd play at least one more game at this level before coming back into the AFL but he's certainly put his name up for consideration.

Bate: Was good today Bate playing across half forward. Kicked one really nice goal on the run in the 1st and took some really good strong contested marks which I find frustrating as he can never do it with Melbourne. I still think he may have some (but not much) currency on the trade market.

Campbell: Combined well with big Maxy Gawn in the ruck to have the better of McIntosh, although I still think Werribee won the clearances. Think he'll probably end up on an AFL senior list next year but not ours.

Davis: Didn't see a lot of him but what he did he seemed to do well. Moves really well for a guy his size.

Fitzpatrick: One of my favourites. Didn't have the impact I was hoping for bit I still like what I see. He's lightning quick for a guy his size. Kicked a really nice goal in the 2nd term and twice in the last he turned his opponent inside out near the boundary line in our forward 50 resulting in 1 poster and 1 out of bounds on the full. Another pre-season and watch out. Took a couple of nice marks around the ground.

Gawn: Played well I thought and again combined with Campbell they had the better of McIntosh. Out of the three ruckmen I thought big Maxy did the most around the ground. Although on one bad note he missed a sitter of a set shot in the 3rd term and on a lighter note at one stage in the last term when I'm sure he was having a snap from our pocket the ball ended up being marked by another Casey player about 40m out on the opposite flank.. How he kicked it there I have no idea, haha.

Jetta: Was very good rotating through the midfield and forward line. Kicked 2 really nice goals and hit fev on the cheast a couple of times which looked really good. Again his tackling was great and how he isn't in Melbourne's team this week I don't know?

Lawrence: Had a fantastic 1st quarter kicking two goals and laying plenty of tackles and putting on a lot of pressure. I reckon he'll certainly stay on the rookie list next year and could be a roughy to land our roving forward pocket role. Needs to improve his fitness base to run out games but I like what I see with him. Just needs to keep himself involved throughout the game.

Maric: Was good. Seemed to rotate between the forward line and midfield . Again he's frustrating cause you can see he has the ability to be as good as someone like Stephen Milne but I just don't know if he wants it that badly.

McDonald: Started poorly, made a couple of mistakes and looked like Daw was going to run him around in Werribee's forward line. Was taken off Daw and then played solid game playing across half back. Did well after a poor start.

McNamara: One of our best today in the midfield. Used the ball well and went in hard. Was probably our leading clearance player. I reckon he has the tools to make it at AFL level, if it's with us it'd be in Cale Morton's role, although McNamara uses it better then Morton and goes harder also. I'm concerned another team might snatch him though and capitalise where we'll miss out. Highlight for me today was Tommy Mac running down Majak Daw in the middle of the ground in the last quarter and catching him holding the ball when it looked like he was about to have one of his customary run and bounce goals.

Nicholson: Was good today I thought and still reckon was unlucky to get dropped. Had a couple of really good runs where he left his opponent for dead setting up some attacking plays. His defensive efforts were good and I reckon he'll be a good player for us.

Warnock: Played a good solid game at FB as he always seems to. Think he was on McKinley and I have no doubt he'll be picked up by someone next year.

Some Casey Players:

Fevola: Kicked 6 and I would of said until the last quarter played the good team game. Had given off some good handballs and created space for other forwards for most of the game. However late in the match (when 50+ points up) he seemed to get very agitated. Gave away a couple of silly free kicks and swore quite adamantly after missing a shot and then after having a ball kicked into him where the delivery was poor. Was a bit of the Fevola of old which was concerning, as I hadn't seen it all season and being 50 odd points up I didn't see the point in it. Was in the process of being dragged when the final siren sounded which was good to see that Gotch had seen enough. I'd still like to see Melbourne take a punt on him, although I wont lie, there were some alarm bells going off inside my head when I saw his last few minutes.

Wall: Played a good game today I thought. But more importantly is that I met his girlfriend before the game today and she's really hot!!! Just thought I'd throw that one in there.

Edit: Add part about Melbourne's emergencies.

Edited August 21, 2011 by Tall Defence

[KC from Casey 7,061]

Thanks for the report KC.  By the way what do you think would be best for Casey for first week of the finals?  

Finish 4th and take on an undefeated Port Melbourne (most likely at TEAC Oval) where more then likely we'll struggle to get up, especially seeing as Melbourne's match that week is interstate meaning Melbourne may take over more then 1 of the emergencies.  But having the double chance can always rebound the following week.

Or finish 5th and take on a less then impressive Box Hill or Sandringham where Casey should win(but are facing elimination straight away) and build some confidence going into the semi finals?

There's no issue as far as I'm concerned. You always go for the double chance. Every Carlton supporter will tell you the same story today after their loss to Hawthorn virtually guaranteed they would finish fifth.

Besides which, Casey came close to beating Port earlier in the season so there's no reason why they couldn't pull off the big upset if the opportunity came their way.

[Whispering_Jack 29,825]

Melon22's how the Demons fared has now been added to KC'a article.

Casey's chances of winning on Saturday have certainly not been enhanced by the two suspensions at AFL level. It's going to be a tough battle for the Scorpions against the Bullants this Saturday.

I wonder if Brock McLean still remembers how to get to Casey Fields?